First Day...Community Orientation...let the games begin!

First day of school was relatively relaxing and not stressful. We (the ABSN class) found out that we had a mountain of reading to do for Wednesday and that our lab for tomorrow was canceled, which gives us an extra time to tackle the reading; so that was actually not a bad deal in the end. Being sick the first day of school was a drag. I bought this really nice thermos for hot tea and it was so effective I couldn't sip on the tea for several hours because it was too HOT! LOL.

The other assignments included along with the reading, are to review DVD demonstrations of the psychomotor skills we need to get checked off on...for clincial health assessment. Essentially, they want us to be able to take a radial pulse, BP, temperature, demonstrate medical asepsis (handwashing technique) PPE equipment applications, and assess respiration. This is our prep for the Wednesday lab. The skills will get progressively more technical and there are about 7 pages of skills to be signed off on throughout the year. We have a student binders for these and apparently these also are to be used as our calling cards to our facility and clinical instructors, as they also have biographical pages included that basically give a profile of us to our teachers, along with our skill levels. So anyone who works with you can ask for your binder and read "Hello, my name is student nurse...and I know how to wash my hands!" Actually, with so many students, this is a pretty good thing to have on hand.

We have a brief lab rotation through a SNF (skilled nursing facility) next week to practice our assessment and people skills before med-surg rotations start in a few weeks. We have Comrade and his classmates to thank for that! It's obvious their suggestions on program improvement were taken and implemented! So all thanks and gratitude to the persevering Comrades!

We had a community orientation today. This is a mandatory requirement for all nursing students in the Central Valley area. All the hospitals in the area cooperated with all the schools in orienting new nursing students to their facilities (once & at the same time). Since we start clinicals earlier than any other school, we had to do this via video (not as interactive as a live presentation but it did the job. There was a book that went along with the orientation which essentially states in a nutshell...don't do anything...don't talk to anyone...be a nice person, play well and document document document. We all signed a bunch of paperwork for each facility we're expected to rotate into.

There were about 82 of us in class all day. They had the Masters and Accelerated BSN students together. We'll split into our classes later on this week and we go our separate ways from there. The ELMSNs go to psych rotations immediately. We prep for med-surg for 4 weeks and then go to clinicals. The class seems like a really diverse, well rounded bunch of adults who have a lot to contribute to the field of nursing. I am particularly impressed with the number of men we have in our class.

I went through three purse packs of kleenex and a bag of Ricola lozenges. If I wake tomorrow any worse, I'm going to the doctor while I have the time. The kids did fine on their own today. Everyone got to work and school on time. They seem very motivated to take over more responsibility. This is going to a real challenge this year (being separated so much)however I am impressed with the fact that they are so prepared for this, probably moreso than their mother. Dear husband is taking up the slack and assuring me that all is well.

Pop called and said my stethoscope came and he was sending it today. Just in time, we have lab this week and we hit the ground running, next week with the old folks (my favorite). The practical parts of nursing are what the last three years have been all about. Mom and Dad have been supportive. I can't wait to learn how to use this new little piece of equipment. It will be difficult not to chase people around in order to hear their heart, lung and bowel sounds. It will be neat to listen to a baby's heart beat in his mother's womb....my sister will have to sit very still. It's all about practicing.

Trude and I plowed through a lot of the reading tonight. This is much more interesting than any other classes we've had in the past, because we are reading nursing books now. The challenges to come are exciting. I am looking forward to learning a lot this year! Let the games begin!